DICK MORRISSEY - Live At The Bell
ACROBAT ACMCD4395
Dick Morrissey tenor saxophone; Lennie Best vibraphone; Ron Hetherington drums; Alan Berry piano; Bill Larue bass
Recorded 8th August 1972, Maidenhead
Dick Morrissey occupied a place in British jazz that was unique. He listened to and played a wide variety of the music that was around at his time. Realising that if he was to keep working, he had to acknowledge a wide audience. His varied output, not always jazz, prejudiced some listeners. The current album shows him in full jazz mode and reveals a musician who was the equal of anyone playing in the seventies.
Opening with ‘Speak Low’ Morrissey shows the full extent of the timbre that he could create. One minute there are echoes of Ben Webster then Paul Gonsalves. One jibe was that he could sound like a great many people except himself. Not true, Morrissey was, as he shows here, endlessly inventive with ideas racing helter-skelter out of his horn. His colleagues on this date were not premier league but Morrissey rises above that. The pleasant piano of Alan Berry is just that……. pleasant. It is the kind of playing that induces you to chat to someone you are with. You can hear the chat clearly. Ron Hetherington on drums is not favoured by the balance, he is too far forward.
Morrissey weaves multiple joyful variations on themes. St. Thomas is always a challenge. He ploughs ahead inventing all the while. This was Morrissey’s great strength, being able to build a solo across time and make it coherent. Probably the best track on the album. Rivalling that track is ‘Over the Rainbow’. Lester Young said that on ballads you needed to know the words so that you could echo the sentiments. Morrissey sounds as though he knew that and also managed to make his solo sound new.
Lennie Best is featured on ‘Whisper Not’. His solo flows with inventive improvisation. A true amateur Best did not want to play music that would compromise his standards. His contribution throughout the evening was impressive.
Mention should be made of the recording quality. It is time that a table was established to indicate quality, the kind that we have with second hand books or records. The sound on the album is not first rate. The drums boom, the bass thuds, the pianist is distant. Vibes are renowned for being difficult to record but the Morrissey tenor sounds well, obviously the microphone was centre stage.
Someday, somewhere, someone will bring out the collected sleeve notes of Simon Spillett. We will then be able to admire the meticulous research, his ability to evoke a particular period and his inability to avoid sneaking in a reference to Tubby Hayes. On the inserts to this album, all twenty-eight pages, Spillett writes with insight and affection about the atmosphere at the Bell in Maidenhead and he glories in the strange mixture of male camaraderie and amateurish organising all mixed in with beer, tobacco smoke, a strange underground that sustained jazz though straitened circumstances. Spillett even describes a visit to the modern-day Bell in Maidenhead which now has its own pizza parlour.
Jazz in the UK went through particularly difficult times in the early seventies. The album shows that Dick Morrissey found ways forward by going back to his roots while remaining a potent player.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
ACROBAT ACMCD4395
Dick Morrissey tenor saxophone; Lennie Best vibraphone; Ron Hetherington drums; Alan Berry piano; Bill Larue bass
Recorded 8th August 1972, Maidenhead
Dick Morrissey occupied a place in British jazz that was unique. He listened to and played a wide variety of the music that was around at his time. Realising that if he was to keep working, he had to acknowledge a wide audience. His varied output, not always jazz, prejudiced some listeners. The current album shows him in full jazz mode and reveals a musician who was the equal of anyone playing in the seventies.
Opening with ‘Speak Low’ Morrissey shows the full extent of the timbre that he could create. One minute there are echoes of Ben Webster then Paul Gonsalves. One jibe was that he could sound like a great many people except himself. Not true, Morrissey was, as he shows here, endlessly inventive with ideas racing helter-skelter out of his horn. His colleagues on this date were not premier league but Morrissey rises above that. The pleasant piano of Alan Berry is just that……. pleasant. It is the kind of playing that induces you to chat to someone you are with. You can hear the chat clearly. Ron Hetherington on drums is not favoured by the balance, he is too far forward.
Morrissey weaves multiple joyful variations on themes. St. Thomas is always a challenge. He ploughs ahead inventing all the while. This was Morrissey’s great strength, being able to build a solo across time and make it coherent. Probably the best track on the album. Rivalling that track is ‘Over the Rainbow’. Lester Young said that on ballads you needed to know the words so that you could echo the sentiments. Morrissey sounds as though he knew that and also managed to make his solo sound new.
Lennie Best is featured on ‘Whisper Not’. His solo flows with inventive improvisation. A true amateur Best did not want to play music that would compromise his standards. His contribution throughout the evening was impressive.
Mention should be made of the recording quality. It is time that a table was established to indicate quality, the kind that we have with second hand books or records. The sound on the album is not first rate. The drums boom, the bass thuds, the pianist is distant. Vibes are renowned for being difficult to record but the Morrissey tenor sounds well, obviously the microphone was centre stage.
Someday, somewhere, someone will bring out the collected sleeve notes of Simon Spillett. We will then be able to admire the meticulous research, his ability to evoke a particular period and his inability to avoid sneaking in a reference to Tubby Hayes. On the inserts to this album, all twenty-eight pages, Spillett writes with insight and affection about the atmosphere at the Bell in Maidenhead and he glories in the strange mixture of male camaraderie and amateurish organising all mixed in with beer, tobacco smoke, a strange underground that sustained jazz though straitened circumstances. Spillett even describes a visit to the modern-day Bell in Maidenhead which now has its own pizza parlour.
Jazz in the UK went through particularly difficult times in the early seventies. The album shows that Dick Morrissey found ways forward by going back to his roots while remaining a potent player.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
